Abstract

This article is based on a critical perspective that views any act of research as a political act. Research is a political act since it not only reflects existing reality, but also influences and creates reality, whether by supporting, affirming, and reinforcing existing reality, or by criticizing it and advocating change. The researcher’s position regarding reality influences their choice of subject and the questions they raise, as well as the selection of research procedures to be applied. The words the researcher chooses in order to describe their findings and conclusions structure the object/subject addressed by their research and the balance of power between these (Ife, 1997). In one of his early poems, The Israeli poet Amichai writes: “Of three or four people in a room / One always stands by the window / Forced to see the injustice among the thorns / And the fires on the hill…” (Amichai, 1958). Identification with the approach that views research as a political act leads researchers to a position similar to that of the “person by the window” who is “forced to see the injustice…” It leads researchers to observe, document, and explain oppressive, unjust, and unequal social orders and structures from a critical perspective, with the goal of leading to changes (Lewin, 1948; Fine & Vanderslice, 1992).